M7.5 and M7.2 Venezuela

Similar Stochastic Events | Summary
Posting Date: June 25, 2026, 12:00:00 PM

Venezuela has been shaken by a pair of back-to-back earthquakes, causing significant and widespread damage. The twin temblors struck Venezuela's northern region on the evening of Wednesday, June 24, the latter ranking as the country's most powerful in more than a century. A magnitude 7.2 foreshock occurred near San Felipe, the capital of Yaracuy state, just after 6:04 pm local time, followed about 40 seconds later by a larger 7.5 magnitude quake roughly 14 miles southeast of the town of Yumare in the same state. The first quake struck at a depth of about 22 km and the second at about 10 km, with the USGS attributing the larger event to shallow strike-slip faulting along the boundary where the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates meet. A seismologist noted that the back-to-back timing made the shaking especially destructive, since the second and larger quake extended the duration of ground motion just as the first was still rattling the region. A tsunami threat was briefly issued for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and at least six aftershocks were felt in Caracas within two hours of the main shocks.

ALERT™ subscribers can download similar stochastic event (SSE) IDs for this event from the Downloads tab of this posting on the ALERT website. Compatible with Touchstone® and Touchstone Re™, the SSEs were selected based key information on the earthquake, including location, magnitude, and depth. They should only be used with exposures in Venezuela.

The human toll has been severe and is expected to climb. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said at least 164 people had been killed and 971 injured, in what she described as the country's most powerful earthquake in more than a century. That figure marked a sharp jump from the overnight count, signaling that the full scale of the damage had yet to be reported, and officials cautioned the toll would likely rise further. The USGS warned the situation could worsen considerably, in part because many buildings in the affected region are built from unreinforced brick masonry and adobe, which are highly vulnerable to strong shaking. Its statistical PAGER modeling assigned substantial probabilities to death tolls in the thousands or tens of thousands and to economic losses potentially reaching tens of billions of dollars—though these are planning estimates rather than confirmed figures.

Damage has been widespread, with several areas hit especially hard. The coastal state of La Guaira appears to have suffered the worst destruction and has been declared a disaster zone, with dozens of buildings collapsed, including a large waterfront hotel in the city of Macuto that was reduced to rubble. In Caracas, the Altamira and El Paraíso neighborhoods were among the worst affected, with rescue crews searching through the rubble of collapsed buildings. La Guaira is also home to Simón Bolívar International Airport, which serves Caracas; video showed people fleeing and parts of the terminal covered in rubble and dust with damaged ceilings, and the airport was closed due to severe structural damage. Metro and railway services in Caracas were suspended, classes were halted, and the Supreme Court canceled activities amid the emergency.

A large-scale relief effort is now underway, complicated by Venezuela's existing turmoil. A nationwide state of emergency has been declared, school classes were suspended for a week, rail service and non-essential activities were paused, and security forces were deployed across the country, with gas supplies cut to some buildings as a precaution while damaged structures are assessed. International teams from the Dominican Republic, France, El Salvador, Mexico, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Qatar are heading to Venezuela to help. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States had already deployed search-and-rescue teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles, and would send assets to the country's badly damaged main airport. Notably, this disaster comes during an acute political and economic crisis: Venezuela is being run by an interim government after U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, and its economy has been crippled by years of hyperinflation.

These are early figures from the first hours after the disaster, so casualty counts, damage assessments, and magnitude details may be revised as rescue operations continue and more information emerges. The Verisk ALERT team is continuing to monitor the aftermath of this event and will provide an update on any additional related activities before the end of this week.

Similar Stochastic Events | Downloads
Posting Date: June 25, 2026, 12:00:00 PM

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Similar Stochastic Event IDs

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